By George Munene
Chief among the challenged faced by Kenya’s up to nine million small scale farmers who account for up to 80% of the country’s agricultural output is access to professional advice on farming. This is as a result of the expense charged for qualified expert counsel on agriculture.
To this end, Nyeri County has launched a free farmer support call center to help farmers acquire this knowledge at no charge.
With the devolution of farmer extension services, county governments have been strained in their financing of extension work greatly curtailing the impact extension officials once had. Technology however offers a cheaper alternative that helps disseminate good crop and animal husbandry practices to farmers.
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The county government in conjunction with Brits agribusiness center—a social enterprise that runs subsidized farmer support programs—will offer farmers professional specialised all round advice on farm operations, farm best practices and answer any agriculture related question they might have.
The call center will be based at Wambugu Fam and the phone lines will be manned by professional degree holders with a minimum of five years field experience.
If farmers have any issue around agriculture they wish to have answered, they can call: 0729233696.